Simon of Larchmont Wine, Spirits & Cheese has this pick for November. It’s $14.99 and you can pick it up there. Call (323) 856-8699 to order. Simon says…

As the calendar races towards Thanksgiving (with a vengeance), it is again time to contemplate what to drink as the nights draw in, and what will match well with your groaning feast on the 27th. We featured a Beaujolais last year, which is a natural choice for turkey and other fowl, but this juicy and complex Cabernet Franc from Anjou (in the Loire valley in western France) deserves its place here.

The fruit is sourced from vineyards with an abundance of schist and quartz in the soils, giving the wine a pleasing streak of minerals that balances the wonderful ripe fruit. Raspberry, red plum, crushed violets and rose petals abound on the nose and the wine has a pleasing supple texture on the palate. It is pure and bright, revealing crushed red cherry and raspberry fruit and just the right amount of vibrant acidity.

A wonderful wine to match with all manner of fall-friendly foods; braised meats including game, goats milk cheeses, hearty stews and of course your bird of choice, be it Turkey, Goose or Duck.

Happy Thanksgiving! –SC

VS

There seems to be a battle brewing online this week for the most talked about wine(s) in the blogosphere. A few weeks back, it was all about the Rockaway (just Google that, we’re too lazy to find the myriad links). Now, it’s all about two unlikely competitors: Loire Valley/Beaujolais bargains from France vs. Twisted Oak’s new River of Skulls Mourvédre, the first “mailing list” allocated wine for the much blogger-celebrated winery.

It’s not quite a West Coast vs. East Coast match-up of bloggers, but the Loire Lovers do seem to reside on the Eastern seaboard. The River-dancers are more scattered about, geographically speaking!

Go here, here and here for more on the Loire wines…and here, here and here for just a few of the many River of Skulls reviews. Click here if you want to sign up for the mailing list.

Now, we realize that Twisted Oak sent samples out to bloggers…but we know of no such effort on the part of French Gamay producers (or Louis/Dressner who imports many of the wines). We do wonder, though, if Asimov, Brooklynguy and Dr. Vino might have dined together recently!

FYI, we’ve yet to try the River of Skulls but look forward to doing so. We had a chance just yesterday to taste the ‘06 Spaniard, and it was delish. So elegant and balanced, without going overboard with oak in a Jorge Ordonez kind of way. This leaves us very excited to try the Skulls. Also, check back soon, as we’re going to be stocking up on some of the Chermette Beaujolais which we agree, for the money ($16), is pretty much an unbeatable bargain.

Here’s one for both the wine geeks and for the masses - it’s fairly obscure (a sparkler made from 100% Cab Franc, from importer Jon-David Headrick) and it’s delicious. It’s got some sweet-tart red fruit and great texture. And it’s affordable at $18 a bottle. Franc-ly, I’d like to try a sparkling Cab Franc!

Okay, so we know we said we’d have notes on the Selene Sauv Blanc and the Amavi Cab among others, but we were so excited to pop the cork on a recent release from one of our favorite producers that we’re going to do things out of order.

You can get lots of good information on Francois Chidaine, an organic and biodynamic winemaker based in the Loire Valley of France, from the Louis/Dressner website (on the West Coast, Beaune Imports handles the wines, just in case you care!). Chidaine works with the white varieties of the Loire, which means he primarily produces Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc, though his focus is much more on the former than the latter. From what we’ve tasted, almost all of Chidaine’s wines seem to have at least a smidgen of residual sugar, but for the bone dry ‘07 Touraine Sauv Blanc that we’re sold currently out of but eagerly awaiting a new shipment of (it’s a bargain at under $12 a bottle).

The Vouvray “Les Argiles” fits within this pattern, and the 2006 is a lovely, highly approachable and drinkable Chenin with tropical overtones, a small amount of residual sugar, and just a hint of acidity (really, almost unnoticeable). Our tendency of late has been to gravitate to the more highly acidic wines, and this is not that. But this mild acidity didn’t at all hamper our enjoyment of the wine.

The ‘06 “Les Argiles” isn’t flabby or without structure, but rather viscous, smooth, and un-tingly in only a good way. This wine complemented the Greek salad and white bean hummus we served it alongside, and was lovely on its own as well. As the wine warmed slightly over the evening, the flavors only got more pronounced, with white donut peaches taking over and aromas of Jasmine really coming to the forefront. White donut peaches? A bit specific, but that’s what popped into our head as we sipped. Forgive our lapse into pretension, please.

We haven’t carried a Chidaine Vouvray before, focusing more on the Montlouis wines that he’s perhaps best known for — and the bargain Touraine. In fact, we picked this up from a competitor…but we’ll definitely consider the ‘06 “Les Argiles” for our inventory, as it represents very good value at about $24 a bottle. It also appears to be the only of Chidaine’s wines available from the distributor in half bottles, for those of you interested in that kind of thing. We can’t find any retailers who carry the 375s, but if you want to special order them, they should be available. Just ask your friendly LWS clerk (or us) and I’m sure they’d be happy to source them on your behalf.